Russell Hantz’s Top 100 Greatest Survivors Ever

18. Tina Wesson (Australian Outback, All-Stars, Blood vs Water)

Tina Wesson was the second ever person to win Survivor and boy did she earn it! Those who played in the Australian Outback struggled immensely, especially with that season being 42 days long rather than the standard 39, but Tina battled hard and made it to the end.

Her convincing Colby to take her to the end over Keith was HUGE and ultimately gave her a million dollars. The show wasn’t as strategic back then, but Tina was still able to play a cutthroat game when she needed to and her social game was clearly top-notch with her convincing Colby to go to the end with her.

Tina was voted off All-Stars first due to being a former winner, but she was a warrior in Blood vs Water, returning from Redemption Island and proving that older women can kick butt and take names. Tina was on the cast list for Winners at War but was sadly cut, which is unfortunate. It’d have been fun to watch her go head-to-head with the best of the best.

17. Jonny FairPlay (Pearl Islands, Micronesia)

Even casual fans of the show who tend to forget players after a few years know who Jonny FairPlay is. He was one of the most interesting characters on his initial season of Pearl Islands – a season FILLED with interesting characters – and his legacy is the famous dead grandma lie.

As much as people want to hate on FairPlay doing that, it worked! He got the reward and no one got hurt in the process of that happening. It was truly brilliant and proves that FairPlay was a new school player trapped in an old school season.

While it was a bummer that he essentially quit on Micronesia, the fact that he was the swing vote at the favorites’ first tribal council is a testament to how good of a player he is. His Survivor legacy is still going strong even nearly a decade later.